Right Side of Wrong
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: You cannot change destiny...but perhaps you can stall it for a while. Jack's daughter has a destiny beyond others, but he's not about to risk her life to fulfill it.
1. Ignore It Completely!

**Hi everyone! This is my first Pirates story, so if it sucks, blame Toxic-Beetle for being the one poking me until I posted it up...it's all her fault I swear! Hope you like it! Please review!  
Sam  
Xxx**

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Chapter 1: All In The Stones

The smell of the forest around them was new to her. The ocean aroma that usually filled her senses was far behind, as was the ship she knew to be home. At five years old, she had to admit that the forest was intriguing, yet also frightening to her. She didn't like being caged in, with the tree canopy blocking all of the sunlight that she knew was still there. A gust of wind nipped at her face, and she shuffled closer to the man beside her, who already had an arm protectively around her.

She had overheard him talking to Mr Gibbs earlier, about leaving her on the Black Pearl, the ship she loved as her home, where she had been raised for as long as she could remember. Her father had said no. He didn't want to leave her there, when the Pearl was at risk from attack, even if it meant taking her with them. He never let her leave his side when they were off the ship, and even on the ship, he was constantly keeping an eye on her.

Something caught her eye in the water - a candle, floating past them. "Dada...candle..." She said, tugging on the side of his jacket to get his attention, and then pointing at the floating candle with her other arm.

He looked where she was pointing, and then turned over his shoulder to signal to them men who were rowing. "We're close." He said.

"Jack." Came a voice, and both Jack and the girl turned around. "Why have we come here?"

Jack sighed. "Because she has something for us, Gibbs."

"But Neveah...it is not safe for her here..."

"Neveah is perfectly safe with me." He insisted, tightening his arm around the girl's shoulders, as she curled closer. "Perfectly safe."

She always heard her father saying that. Jack felt like he had to say it nearly everyday. Since Neveah's mother died when she was still just a baby, a lot of people doubted Jack's ability to be a responsible father. Many of his crew pleaded with him not to bring the child on board the Pearl, and even Mr Gibbs thought it was better that Neveah be raised by Will and Elizabeth. Jack had been determined to raise her himself, and whilst certain things, such as mystery trips to see Tia Dalma for one, questioned his reasoning, he generally had become the responsible parent.

His reaction had been classic when they found that the culprit of the rum being gone was because a certain four year old was learning how to play catch with them. Gibbs was surprised that Jack hadn't started to lick the rum from the floorboards, and rather, had quickly picked up his daughter before she started to play with the glass. She'd learned the 'Dada's Rum - No Touchy' rule that night.

They saw the old shack raised above the water just before they arrived there. Neveah was watching the candles floating in the water, transfixed by the flames now that it was darker. The water appeared black now, rather than the murky greenish-grey that it had before. Before, she had seen a large snake slip into the water, and had gasped aloud, before Jack had assured her that if the snake came anywhere near her, he'd blow it's ruddy brains out.

As they approached the shack, Jack lifted Neveah onto his hip, stepping out onto the small pier that looked so old and worn it was a wonder of how it was still standing. Gibbs followed them off the ship, and followed them up the creaky old steps. Outside what could be described as either a door, or a peice of wood nailed to the rest of the shack on only one side, Jack set Neveah down on the ground and kneeled before her.

"I want you to stay close to me, okay?" He told her.

"'Kay Dada." She nodded.

"Don't touch anything, don't speak to the lady, and don't take anything that you're offered. Do you understand me?" He said to her. It was rare that Jack showed any major authority over Neveah like this, but when he did, she understood that its rarity meant it was serious, and obeyed him.

"'Kay Dada." She nodded again.

Standing up straight, Jack took her hand, but before he opened the door, he turned back to Gibbs, muttering quietly: "Keep an eye on her." Gibbs nodded. Neveah was a curious child, and no doubt the jars of tricks in Tia's shack would interest her. He didn't fancy coming out with a cursed child, however.

Entering the shack, Jack wasn't surprised to see that it hadn't changed at all since his last visit many years ago. "Remember what I told you." He said to the girl again, who nodded as they entered further into the shack. She let out a small cry as a rat ran across the floor before her, scampering over her feet, and Jack lifted her from the ground, settling her back on his hip when she clung to him.

Her cry alterted Tia, who made herself visible from where she had been watching them from the back of the shack, unseen by them.

"Jack Sparrow." She said simply, in that tone that always suggested she was pleased to see him. This was often followed by a tale of someones inevitable doom - usually his own.

"Tia Dalma." He said, not sounding pleased to see her at all, and looked at Neveah when she gasped, coming face to iris with a glass full of eyes hanging from the ceiling. Jack moved them away from the jar, and Tia looked curiously at Neveah.

"Well, well, well, Little Neveah." Tia said, as she caught sight of the child in Jack's arms. "The only child of Captain Jack Sparrow. The motherless angel that keeps our captain on the straight and narrow."

Jack passed Neveah to Gibbs. "Try not to let go of her." He said, knowing that the girl would squirm, and then looked back at Tia. "You said you had something for me?"

Tia nodded, and sat down at the table, where her prophetic stones were strewn across the worn wood with many different engravements on it. The wooden table was filled with trinkets - jewellery, decorated stones, peices of card with drawings of patterns on it. Nothing that Jack hadn't seen before on his trips here. Sometimes, he wondered if the trinkets ever moved.

She picked up the stones in her hands, and shook them in her grasp, a look of pure concentration upon her face. Jack didn't watch her, instead looking at a rather nice collection of jewellery that looked extremely valuable. He saw a particularly fancy looking bangle, and slipped it into his jacket pocket. Neveah giggled, watching her father's trademark pinch, and Jack put his finger to his lips nervously. He had been caught thieving by Tia before, and it wasn't an experience he wanted again. Neveah smiled, giggling silently this time, and put her finger over her lips.

Tia threw the stones down onto the table with a chant - some language that she always spoke to herself that he couldn't even begin to understand. She observed them with great interest, not raising her eyes as she looked at the position of the stones with great interest. She was silent for a minute...two minutes...three minutes...and then...

"As much as I enjoy a trip up the mankey river of doom," Jack said, breaking the silence, "I hope you didn't bring me here to look at your lovely pattern of stones."

Tia ignored his comment, and looked at the stones still. "They're not stones. They're prophecy stones." She told him.

Jack frowned. "And I'm here because..."

"Every person has a destiny, Jack." She told him. "Things we are meant to do, and things we are meant to know." She looked up, straight at Neveah. "Even the smallest person has a destiny to belong to."

Jack waved his arms around. "Oh no you don't!" He said, drawing a satisfied smile from Tia's lips as she watched him step protectively infront of Gibbs and Neveah. "You don't look at your story stones and then look at my girl. No. Not happening."

"But, Jack, don't you see?" Tia said to him, as Neveah wrapped her arms around Jack's neck, and he took her back into his arms. "It is already happening."

"What are you talking about?"

Tia smiled again - this time it was the 'I know something you don't know' smile that annoyed him so much. "We all have a destiny, Jack." She repeated. "We are each born with two paths before us. A path that we choose, and a path that we fall to if our first path falls ill. You chose the path that lead you to the Black Pearl, rather than the path that lead to a respectful life on land - the same paths that present themselves to most pirates." She said, looking briefly to Gibbs, standing silently on Jack's side. "Someone has already interfered with the paths of Little Neveah Sparrow."

"Interefered...?" Jack asked.

"Her mother, she was visited by a friend of Davy Jones before the babe was born." Tia said, and saw the recognition of Neveah's mother flashing before his face. "You know of whom I speak."

"Adelaide." He said to himself. Neveah looked at Jack's face, away from the jar of moving tentacles bove Gibbs's head she had been entranced by. She had heard that name before. She heard Jack mention it when he thought she wasn't listening.

"The man went by the name of Henry Alderman." Tia continued. "A fortnight before Little Neveah was birthed, he visited Adelaide in the middle of the night."

"That's not true." Jack shook his head. "She slept in the same room as me. I would have known."

"The prophecy stones do not lie, Jack Sparrow." Tia said in a warning tone before turning back to the stones. "Adelaide knew that her health was poor, and knew that she would not survive long after bearing her child." Jack looked down at the ground. Adelaide's death had been medically explained by the after effects of the birth which she never recovered from. "She knew from the start of her motherhood that her child would outlive her within months."

Jack shook his head again. "She can't have known that." He muttered at first, and then repeated it louder. "She can't have known! She would have told me!" Surely Adelaide would have said something if she knew that she was going to die. Surely she'd have told Jack, her husband, if she knew that he was soon to be widowed and alone with thier child. She would have done.

"She made a deal with Henry that allowed her child to live."

"What?" Jack asked, no longer feeling the pain of Adelaide's death. "What kind of deal?"

"In exchange for her soul after her death, her child would be allowed to live on after her passing."

Jack looked at Neveah. She was alive because of a deal made with an associate of Davey Jones? God, what had Adelaide gotten herself into? He was silent for the longest of times, and it was Gibbs who broke the silence.

"So...Miss Adelaide's still alive?" He asked.

Jack looked at him, and then at Tia.

"Not alive." She said, and Jack sighed. "But not dead either."

He shook his head and looked at Gibbs. "She never could make up her mind." He said with a gentle laugh that eased the situation somewhat, before remembering that Tia had brought them here for a reason.

"There was a clause, by which if Adelaide continued on into death before her service on the Flying Dutchman was up, then her child would bear the rest of her sentence. Since it was the only way that Little Neveah would be able to live, she agreed, under the condition that this deal is forgotten as soon as Neveah births her own child."

"She did what?" Jack asked incredulously. Adelaide wouldn't have done that. She loved their daughter, right up until the day she passed. She wouldn't make a deal that meant she would have to go within an ocean of the Flying Dutchman, let alone onto his ship.

Tia inspected the stones again. "There is no warning to when her soul will pass on." She said, with a hint of alarm in her voice. Tia getting alarmed was rare, and never meant good things. She turned around, abandoning the stones, and bringing down a box from atop of the shelf. When she brought it down, she rumaged through it, and finally retrieved a small velvet bag.

"She must wear this, at all times." Tia instructed.

Jack looked inside the bag, and saw that there was a silver necklace inside. A heart shape made out of rubies, each precious stone studded around the edge with borders of more silver. He would defiantely sell that for a lot of shiny pennies. "Why?" He asked her.

"It will make her invisible to Davey Jones and his monster." Tia told them. "If Adelaide's soul passes on before Neveah births her own child, then he will be unable to retrieve her when she is wearing this necklace. He will have no hold over her."

She had been right about the jar of dirt, and everything else so far, so he took the necklace, and set Neveah down on the ground, clasping it around her neck. She looked at it for a moment, and then let it hang, standing beside her father's leg when he stood up again. He kept a hand on her shoulder, keeping her beside him.

"What's the rest of this 'destiny' stuff about then?" He asked her.

"She is the one that must kill Davey Jones." Tia nodded.

It finally hit him who they were talking about. "Davey Jones is dead." He remembered. How could he forget? "Norrington stabbed his heart. Jones is dead, his lovely beastie is dead, and the rest of his buggering crew are dead."

"Davey Jones cannot be killed until the one destined to kill him stabs the heart." Tia said. "And the destined one, is Little Neveah."

And Jack did something that surprised both Gibbs and Tia. He laughed. He laughed harder than he had laughed in a while. When he was done, he lifted Neveah onto his hip. "Well, thanks for this lovely trip, Tia, always good to see you." He said cheerfully. "I'll make sure Nevie keeps an eye on your necklace for you. Have fun with your Story Stones." He said, and he notioned to the door. Gibbs left first, but Tia called Jack back.

"Sparrow."

He turned around and looked at her. "You cannot ignore her destiny."

"I'm not going to ignore it." He told her. "I plan to forget about it completely."

And he left.

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	2. I Haven't Lost Her!

Jack Sparrow stumbled around the deck of the Black Pearl. Somehow, the ship had managed to remain intact over the past ten years, probably due to the various deals he had made in the ports to have it repaired when need be. Will Turner definately knew how to pull strings in Port Royale. After living on land agreed less with them than the sea, Will and Elizabeth had come to live on the Black Pearl with them, bringing their young boy, Michael, with them.

The reason Jack was stumbling around was not due to the amount of rum he had drunk last night, but more because the sea was particularly choppy that morning, sending the deck lurching one way and then another. He had been wandering around the ship for near enough an hour, and hadn't found wht he was looking for yet.

In fact, it wasn't an object he was looking for. Oh no, it was something that he most definately shouldn't have lost in the first place. Well, technically, it wasn't lost. It just wasn't found. It wasn't an 'it' either, it was a 'she', a 'she' who had a habit for not being found when she didn't want to be. He had been Captain of this ship for many years, and he hadn't known of half the hiding places he managed to find her in.

"Jack!"

He stopped his searching, seeing Elizabeth sitting on a barrell for a seat. She wore the pirate attire all the time now. In fact, the only time he ever saw a woman in a dress was then they made port. The pirate attire suited her, but seeing her in a dress lit up the eyes of all the men around her. He was thankful that Neveah didn't take kindly to dresses, because he would have a lot of trouble on his hands when it was time to give those glaring at her a 'good sorting out'.

Sitting on Elizabeth's lap was Michael, now five years old. He had his legs wrapped around her waist and his head resting on her shoulder with his eyes open and staring bleakly at the wavering deck before him. He had his father's face, and would no doubt grow up to be just as handsome as his father, but he definately had his mother's hair, the mousy colour that lightened in the summer under the scorching sun, but appeared darker in the winter months.

"Ah, Elizabeth." He said, turning back to look at her.

"Lost something?" She asked, a curiously playful expression crossing her face.

Jack knew better than to admit with her that he had lost this someone. He would probably get a lecture from her.

He knew with Elizabeth that she tended to end up mothering the whole crew, not just her son. Since the day she had set foot on the Black Pearl, the crew had never missed a meal, and he had to admit, they all ate a lot healthier than they did before, insisting that all the fat was setting a bad example for the children, and making the workers sluggish on the deck. Her next campaign was to work on the rum, and by 'work on' she meant 'keep men away from'. This hadn't gone down to well with any of the crew, and when Jack had found out, he had been temped to feed Elizabeth to the nearest sea creature off the Pearl - which at the time, happened to be a very docile group of dolphins.

"Lost something? Me? Of course not." He scoffed. "I'm offended that you even thought that." He said, turning his attention to Michael. He had hoped that his lost person would be within ten feet of the Turner boy, as the youngster was always following her around, and she liked nothing better than to entertain the boy. "How's young Mikey today?" He asked, smiling and ruffling the boys hair.

"Feeling a bit seasick, I'm afraid." Elizabeth said, subconsiously smoothing back the hair that Jack had just messed out of place.

Jack didn't understand how a child could live on a ship since they were a year old and still get seasickness after four years. Neveah had never had seasickness, but then she only stepped on dry land when they made port. Her mother and Jack had both insisted that she was born at sea, so that probably had something to do with it. Michael had spent his first year of life on solid ground - not that the Pearl wasn't solid, it was holding up rather well for it's age.

Mind you, he did remember the fun of watching both children learning to walk on a swaying ship. With Neveah, she had toddled towards him, arms outstretched, and when a wave had swayed the ship, she had bowled over. Because it was his daughter, Jack had immediately picked the crying child up, who was annoyed at herself for not completing her feat as well as nursing a bumped head, and he had made a big fuss of her until she had calmed down. With Michael, he had simply continued laughing at the exact same event with Will doing the fatherly duty of making the fuss when he fell.

"He'll be fine...just -" Jack started to suggest, but Elizabeth cut him off sharply.

"I'm not giving him rum." She said firmly.

"Why not?" He asked, sounding offended that she would turn down such a magical drink. "Never hurt anyone."

"Of course it does!" She insisted, and began to rattle on about how it did hurt people.

Jack, instead, turned his attention to looking around the ship...where else could he possibly look? He had checked the stalls, the rooms, the crates of hoarded rum (which he had warned against going near before)...there wasn't a single hiding place left, was there?

He had an idea.

"Elizabeth." He said, sounding falsely compassionate. "You're looking very tired." She looked perfectly fine. "Why don't I take Mikey off your hands for a bit, and you go for a lie down."

She looked at him sceptitively. "All right, Jack, what are you up to?" She asked suspiciously.

"You've been sneaking around for nearly an hour, then you want to take Michael to no doubt help you in your cause." She told him.

He thought this over. "Yes, he would be helping. Very much." He smiled. "Doesn't every little boy want to help a pirate?"

Again, Elizabeth gave him that scolding look.

"Look." He surrendered. "I'm just-"

"Captain Sparrow!"

He turned at the call, and saw Gibbs standing at the other end of the deck. Jack looked at him, and Gibbs simply shrugged. Jack rolled his eyes and cursed under his breath, remembering to do it quietly so that Mother Elizabeth didn't scold him and take away his toys.

"Jack, really, what are you and Gibbs looking for?" She asked curiously, having seen Gibbs signal to Jack.

Maybe he should just give in. After all, Elizabeth was a woman - she might know where!

"Uh..not so much 'what' as 'who'." He started to explain, and he was met with a laugh from Elizabeth.

"You can't find her, can you?" She realised. Jack simply shrugged, neither admitting or denying it. "Jack, she's a master at keeping hidden. You should know by now that you can't find her if she doesn't want to be found."

"Well, I'd very much like to find her so that I can make sure she hasn't toddled off the side of the ship, savvy?" He said to Elizabeth, grinning stupidly. "Mikey's always following her around, so if I could just borrow him for a moment and then-"

"No." She said simply.

"Why not?" He asked unfairly.

"You've already lost your child, I won't have you getting mine lost on this ship as well." She told him simply. "Besides, Michael's sick."

Michael wasn't sick. He was just a bit wobbly on his feet and a bit tired from running around for half of the night. "He'll be fine with the sea air."

"It's the sea air that's doing it to him." She argued.

"Please?"

"Jack, just keep looking. You'll find her. Do you really need a five-year-old to help you find her?"

Jack thought about this for a moment, and then nodded. "Yes. Yes, I do."

Elizabeth sighed, and rolled her eyes. "I saw her about an hour ago." She said. "She was down by the rum crates."

"What was she doing in there?" He asked.

"I didn't stop to ask her. She looked like she wanted to be on her own."

"Oh." Jack realised. "Right, well, I'll go see to her then."

"Jack!" She called out as he started to leave, making him turn back to her. "She looked like she wanted to be on her own."

"Yes?"

"As in...alone."

"Okay."

"As in...without people around her."

"That's fair enough. It gets hard being on a busy ship all the time." He shrugged.

"That includes you, Jack." She told him.

"Ah, that's where you're wrong!" Jack corrected her, pointing at her with a gleeful smile on his lips. "Contrary to popular belief, a girl always wants her Dad."

He headed off towards the rum crates, and left Elizabeth to take care of her 'sick' child.


	3. The Man's A Jinx!

**Sorry I haven't updated this in a while! I've been busy with getting back to college, and hit a block with this chapter. Thanks Emmz for reading this through for me, and I'm sorry for scaring you with the likliness hehe.  
Angel  
Xxxx**

**Chapter 3: **

Stumbling down to the rum holds, Jack searched every nook and cranny for his daughter. He even searched the tinest spaces for her, because he had a good memory of her being able to hide anywhere she wanted to. Elizabeth had been right, unless she wanted to be found, she was very well hidden.

"Nevie?" He called out when he reached the familar cases of rum. "Nev?" Still no answer. "Neveah?" He asked, slightly louder.

"I'm over here." Came the replying voice.

He followed the voice, catching sight of the girl sitting down between the crates. She was that well hidden that if you hadn't know she was there, you could have easily walked passed her.

"Nevie." He sighed heavily. "What are you doing down here, lass?" He asked her.

She notioned to the rum around her. "Taking after you and basking in the presence of rum."

He fixed her with a stare. "Nice try." He told her. With some difficulty in the small space, he managed to sit down on the ground before her. "Now, come on." He said grimacing as he removed a rusty nail from beneath him. "Tell your old Dad what's wrong."

She shrugged innocently. "Nothing's wrong." She told him, giving him a smile.

He gazed at her. Every day, people told him that she was looking more and more like himself, with her dark brown hair that homed a few stray beads on its braids. But her crystal blue eyes told him differently. Every day, she was looking more and more like Adelaide, the mother she would never know.

"I've seen you every single day since the day you were born." He pointed out to her. "I know when you've got something on your mind."

"I've got something on my mind," She confirmed. "But that doesn't mean that it's something bad."

"Yes, it does." Jack nodded, seeing right through her secretive manner.

"Why do you think that?" She asked.

"Because you're playing with that necklace of yours. You only do the twirly thing with it when you're worried about something." He observed.

For the first time, Neveah realised that she was, indeed, twirling her necklace around her fingers. The ruby heart surrounded by pure silver on a thick silver chain was no doubt worth a lot of shiny pennies, according to Mr Gibbs, but her father never allowed her to consider selling it, even when they were horrifically low on money and supplies. She wondered once whether it was something that belonged to her mother, but she had a ring of hers that had belonged to Adelaide, and he openly told her about that.

During her silence, she felt her father's eyes upon her the whole time. She hated when he did that. She loved him unconditionally, along with everything that he did for her, all the sacrifices that he made during their day-to-day lives that he never thought twice about, but she hated that he could see right through her when she was hiding something.

There was no point keeping her worries from him, she realised, and spoke up.

"I had a strange dream last night." She admitted to him.

"Strange?" He questioned.

"Well, it wasn't scary, like a nightmare, but it wasn't normal, either." She explained, unsure how else to word it. It had simply been strange.

Jack nodded. "What happened in it?"

"I was on a ship, but it wasn't the Pearl." She remembered. That was the strange part, because she had never been on a ship other than the Black Pearl in her life. "It was more ghostly, I suppose."

He smirked. "And here's me thinking you couldn't get more ghostly than our Pearl." He joked.

"It had barnacles on it." She recalled. "All over it. It looked like there were faces in the walls, as well."

His previous playful manner disappeared. "What?"

"Faces..." She repeated. "...like men had been forced into the walls." She went off into her own little world, forgetting that he was there whilst she recalled her dream. "And there was a large wooden...thing...on the deck. It looked like the helm, but it wasn't sterring the ship. Then it started turning, on it's own, but slowly, like it was being pushed. The middle of it starting rising up. It went about four feet high, and then came back down again, really quickly. It sent an impace wave away from the ship in all directions. Then there was this roaring, and I woke up."

She finished, and Jack nodded slowly. "Ah...that's interesting." He held no explanation. What was he supposed to tell her? Hopefully she would pass it off as a dream, and nothing more.

"What does it mean?" She asked.

Clearly, she wasn't passing this off as a dream. Of course not, because she was of Sparrow blood. No matter how strange things were, they always had to find out what was really going on, otherwise they ended up in the middle of a tight spot without realising how they had gotten there in the first place.

"I'm not sure what it means," He lied, "But I know that it's a real ship." That part wasn't a lie.

"What kind of ship would have something like that on it's deck?" She asked, remembering the large wooden contraption.

He let a brief pause hang after her question, and then came clean with her. "The Flying Dutchman."

"Davy Jones's ship." She nodded, recognising the name.

Jack's forehead creased into a frown. "How do you know about Davy Jones?" He asked her. He had never mentioned Jones to her, simply because of what Tia Dalma had told him all those years ago.

"One of the greatest and most feared pirates to ever sail the seas, Gibbs says. Controls the Kraken."

Aha, Gibbs. Trust him to tell a good story to a willing listener. Neveah was an avid listener, always talking to the high tales being told when they were in Tortuga.

Suffering a quick blow to his pride, Jack quickly cleared up on particular point. "I wouldn't say the greatest, but he was definately feared." He nodded. "What you said about faces in the walls?" She nodded. "They used to be men."

Neveah's eyes widened slightly. "Pirates?"

"Pirates, merchants, King's navy...anyone who came into contact with him."

"What happened to them?" She asked curiously.

Somehow, he found himself surprised that she listened to so many stories, yet didn't know what went on under the control of Davy Jones. He didn't like to think about her being told about him, especially with her curiosity, because knowing her, she would get herself into deep trouble.

"They made a deal with him." He told her. "Prolonging the sentance of death to their souls. Instead of passing, they serve one hundred years behind the mast of his ship."

Neveah shrugged. "Doesn't sound so bad." She suggested.

Jack smirked at her. "It does when your body becomes like that of a sea creature."

Her face contorted to a look of disgusted horror, and her hand flew over her mouth.

"I called him 'fish face' once." Jack remembered proudly.

"What did he do?"

"He got his big old nasty beastie to crush up the Pearl." He said, frowning a little at the memory.

"The Kraken destroyed the Pearl?" Neveah asked, a strange hint to her voice.

"Tiny pieces, couldn't even recognise it." He confirmed.

Neveah looked around them. "But...it's fine now." She pointed out.

"Long story." He told her.

She looked excited at the idea of a story. "Tell me, please?" She asked him.

He sighed, giving in to her immediately. "We were searching for the Dead Man's Chest..."

"Jack!"

Jack looked around at Gibbs's call. "Yes?"

Gibbs followed his voice to the hideaway where Jack and Neveah sat, and gave him an apologetic look. "We've got a problem."

Jack and Neveah simply looked at each other, and in the same bored tone, they simulatenously muttered one word.

"Marcus."

-----------------

Up on the deck, it was a shambles as the crew stood around watching Will arguing with Marcus. Rum was coating the ground, and shards of broken glass and shattered crates were littered around it. Standing to one side, trying to coax Will down, was Elizabeth, still cradling Michael, but no one was listening to her.

"Hello? Will? Marcus?" Jack questioned, when he arrived on scene. No one was listening to him either. "OI!" He shouted, and everyone froze, looking at the captain. "That's better." He said, into the new found quietness.

"Jack, where have you been?" Will asked him.

"Downstairs." He said simply. "What happened? It looks like a canon's crashed into the new crates of rum."

Of course, something that careless would never happen.

"That's exactly what happened." Will confirmed.

"What?" Jack and Neveah asked at the same time.

"Marcus dropped the rope...again." Will complained.

Marcus, bless his heart, was an ageing man now, but still a good sailor. He had served with the King's navy for many years, and had recruited himself onto the Black Pearl at their last stop in at Port Royal. He wasn't quite sure why he had the sudden change of heart to become a pirate, but he was a good hand to have around.

Well, he was when he wasn't being as clumsy as a four-year-old child, which Will hated him for.

"Well, as unfortunate a loss as it is..." Elizabeth said, defending Marcus, "I'm sure it wasn't his fault."

"Of course it is." Will insisted. "It's always his fault, everything that goes wrong on this ship is his fault."

Marcus turned to Jack. "I'm sorry, Captain, but what, exactly, is he talking about?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't bloody know, do I?"

Will turned to Jack as well, stepping closer than Marcus to get his point across. "Jack, every single ship, merchant vessal, and rowboat he has ever said on has either been attacked, pillaged, or sank...and most of them were navy vessals. I'm telling you, the man is a jinx."

"Oh, leave it out, William, you'll be burning witches next." Jack said, waving him off. "Now, we've got bigger problems at hand." He said, turning his attention to the damaged crate of rum that had been being moved. "We need to make port and find more rum."

"Port Royale?" Gibbs questioned.

Jack shook his head. "No, Wilkins won't let us have anything. Says its part of changing times, or whatever nincompoop that's supposed to mean." He said.

Neveah whispered in his ear. "You don't think it's got anything to do with the amount of money we already owe him, do you?"

"Of course not." Jack insisted.

"Thought so."

"So, where shall we set sail for?" Gibbs asked.

"Tortuga."


	4. Norrington

Chapter 4:

Tortuga had been a favourite destination of Neveah's since she was very small. Her mother, as Jack had mentioned once, had not been a huge fan of the loud atmosphere and the high population of whores and drunks, but Neveah had taken after her father in this respect. However, whenever they set foot on the docks, Jack had given Neveah the same 'talking to' that he always did.

_"Right, listen to me you rascal. I can't tell you to behave, because I know you're not going to listen to me. I want you to stay by me, Will or Elizabeth. If you're with Will and Elizabeth, tell me. Or Gibbs. Just tell me whoever you're going to be with. Never talk to a drunk-"_

_"But, Dad, you're going to be drunk."_

_"Never talk to a drunk." He'd repeated. "Don't let the girls dress you up again, and don't let me find you being dressed up by the girls again. If I catch them trying to get you to learn their trade, I've got every mind to make you stay on the ship every time we come back to Tortuga."_

_She'd smile, and politely assure him: "Don't worry Dad, I'm not going to become a whore." _

Of course, her wording, despite it being exactly what his worst fear was when it came to this port, always made him cringe. Nothing had made him cringe more than the first time she had said it, when she was six years old, but still, even when he knew she'd say it every time, the word coming from his daughter's mouth was still shocking, and, as far as he was concerned, it was a word she shouldn't know the meaning of.

They went to the same bar they always did, The Faithful Bride, and, whilst the rum was being counted for their order, the found themselves sitting around a wooden table on stools.

Across the other side of the bar, Neveah had caught glimpses of a man with cold eyes watching them. Yet, despite the coldness of his eyes, she saw that there was much anger in them, and unfortunately, she found it appeared to be directed at them.

"Who is that man?" She'd asked her father, Will and Elizabeth, who were sitting closely to her. Elizabeth wasn't happy about coming to Tortuga at all, let alone needing to bring Michael into port and into the bar with them.

"Man? What man?" Jack asked her, looking over his shoulder to see where his daughter was looking.

"That man." She said, nodding her head in the stranger's direction. "In the muddy jacket." She added, realising that, save her, Elizabeth, and the whores, everyone in the bar was a man.

Jack caught sight of him first, recognising him instantly. "Well, stick a dress on me and call me a woman..." He muttered under his breath.

"Is that Norrington?" Elizabeth asked in disbelief.

"Who's Norrington?" Neveah asked.

"James Norrington, former Commadore." Will explained to her.

"Former?" She frowned at him.

Elizabeth let out a gentle smirk. "He never did get his title back, did he?"

"With good reason." Jack said bitterly.

"Jack, don't be so harsh!" Elizabeth scolded him the same way she did her son.

"He double crossed us." Jack reminded them.

"He double crossed _you_." Will corrected.

"And I had a whirlwind adventure inside of Davy Jones's beastie because of it." He pointed out.

The arguement between them was about to develop further, but Neveah broke it up. "He's heading this way." She told them.

"Oh, bloody hell." Jack complained, turning his back on the approaching man. "Next he'll be wanting to come with us. The smily, backstabbing, smelly runt of a--Norrington! How wonderful to see you!" He said, changing his tune dramatically when Norrington reached their table and stepped up beside Jack. He wasn't amused. Clearly, he had heard them.

"Turner. Sparrow." He said coldly, not even acknowledging Neveah, Elizabeth or young Michael.

"_Captain_ Sparrow, former Commadore." Jack corrected, whilst also pointing out that he was still more authorative on the seas than he was.

Norrington frowned at Jack. "I don't like the way you address me, _Captain_." He said, though his show of respect for authority was clearly mocking.

"Oh...well, then...I won't." Jack said, turning away from Norrinton and back to his drink.

"What brings your crew to Tortuga?" He asked, purposefully attracting Jack's attention, much to his annoyance.

"What else, but it's fine supply of...supplies?" Jack said, gesturing to the many glasses of rum on the table. All of them were empty; untouched by the females at the table, a few to Will, but the majority were Jack's.

"Rum, then." Norrington nodded.

"Aye, the rum."

Norrington caught sight of Neveah, and she instantly felt unease under his intense stare. He had a scheming look in his eyes, like he knew something about her, and that his knowledge gave him an advantage over her; an understanding that lead to something in his favour.

"You appear to have reached a new low, Sparrow" Norrinton commented, abandoning his recognition of Jack's title, and never once taking his eyes off the young girl. "Allowing runaway children onto your ship, and a girl, at that."

"This is no runaway, ex-Commadore." Jack corrected. "This bonnie lass is me daughter."

Norrington laughed hysterically at this.

Jack cast a confused look at Neveah, who shrugged back at him, and then frowned at Norrington. "Something about your reaction tells me that you don't quite think me up to the task, once-been-Commadore, and that, I find a tad insulting."

"Your daughter?" Norrington repeated, still laughing under his breath. "You lack the responsibilities to keep yourself to hygenic acceptance, let alone a child."

Neveah spoke up, her voice bitter towards Norrington. "I wouldn't want anyone else for a father, not that you could begin to understand his abilities as a parent."

Jack, at any other time, would have smiled proudly at his daughter, knowing that she took the family name with honour on the seas, but the nagging feeling that Norrington was up to something prevented this.

"Is that so?" Norrington asked.

"You shouldn't speak ill of something you know nothing about." She almost spat at him, trying hard to control her temper towards the man who insulted her fathers parenting.

Norrington smiled at Neveah, and then turned back to Jack. "And just like you, Sparrow, she doesn't know her place."

Jack leaned back on his stool, folding his arms over his chest and grinning at Norrington. "Oh, she knows her place well, Norrington..." He assured him. "...and it's above you."

Norrington simply nodded in reply, and turned his head back to Neveah, drinking in every detail of her appearance. "Neveah Sparrow." He said to himself. "So, this is who they are looking for. Your daughter." He said to Jack.

"How do you know her name?" Jack said, knowing that he hadn't mentioned her name whilst in Norrington's undelightful company.

"Two nights ago, a ship pulled into harbour. A skeleton ship I've had the misfortune of seeing only once, sixteen years ago."

"The Flying Dutchman." Elizabeth said quietly, and Neveah looked at her, frowning.

Norrington nodded, never taking his eyes off Jack as he leaned across the table so they were at eye level with each other. "It would have been the first time in ten years that it made port. The harbour was deserted as soon as it came into sight, but instead of an attack, only one man stepped from the ship. He came to this place, and started asking questions about you, and young Neveah; about you and your whereabouts. His name was Henry Alderman."

"Alderman?" Jack asked, just the name striking back a memory of visiting Tia Dalma with his infant daughter in his arms.

"He wasn't around long." Norrington said. "Just gathering information about where he might find her. He found what he was after, and then left again. The Flying Dutchman vanished, along with its crew."

Jack stood up, baring his weight on his forearms as he looked at Norrington square on. "What was he told?"

"Dad, what's going on?" Neveah asked.

"What did you tell him, Norrington?" Jack asked again, slightly worried yet not wanting to let it show in his voice.

"What makes you think it had anything to do with me?" Norrington asked, the look of happy guilt in his eyes giving it away instantly.

"Dad?"

"I know this had everything to do with you." Jack told him, grabbing the scruff of his collar and pulling him close. "Now, what did you tell him about my daughter?"

Norrington did everything short of laughing in his face. "I just told him that anyone under the name of Sparrow can be found on The Black Pearl."

Jack let go of Norrington, instantly saying: "We need to go."

"Why?" Neveah asked.

"Now." He continued.

"Why are they looking for us?" Neveah asked him.

"We'll talk later, but now we need to get back to the Pearl, and as far away from here as possible." Jack insisted, his unease delighting Norrington.

"But...the rum's not ready-"

"Nevermind the rum!" Jack barked at them.

There was silence, all shocked that Jack was willing to leave behind the rum to get away from the port. What was going on?

"What are you all sitting on your backsides for?" He said, waving his arms and urging them up. "Up! Move! Captain says go!"

They scrambled, getting to their feet, and moving towards the door. Neveah grabbed Jack's arm. "Dad, you're scaring me." She admitted.

Jack, however, guided her towards the door, and grabbed Norrington's collar once more, causing Neaveah to look back at him curiously. She'd never seen such a look of anger on her father's face.

"If anything, _anything, _happens to my daughter because of what you've told the man who took her mother from her, I'll kill you with my bare hands."


End file.
